For one, now writers and publishers are consciously moving away from the traditional genre of folk tales with pronounced moralistic overtones. Sandhya Rao, Editor, Tulika Books, Chennai, in an exclusive interview pointed out, "There are now dedicated children’s publishers who’re producing international standard books that reflect Indian society in all its variety and not simply latching on to myths or legends`85"

The initial years of post-Independent India saw only a few players in the field of children’s publications—-the Children’s Book Trust, the National Book Trust, the IBH and Thompson Press. In recent times, this area has got a major thrust with the entry of Tulika and Tara in Chennai, and Penguin’s Puffin books in New Delhi. The arrival of MNCs like Scholastic too is transforming the face of children’s publishing.

Having always had a rich oral and written tradition—right from nani ki kahani’s to the Panchtantra and Jataka Tales to the Amar Chitra Kathas—we’ve seen a proliferation of children’s writers as well. Gifted writers in English like Ruskin Bond, Subhadra Sen Gupta, Poile Sen Gupta, Zai Whitaker, Paro Anand, Bulbul Sharma, Arup Kumar Dutta, etc, have brought to children’s writing a realism and Indianness by capturing the images, sights and sounds that abound in Indian homes, streets and landscapes. Then there is the huge army of regional authors whose works pulsate with the lilt and liveliness of vernacular India.

Bond, often called the ‘pioneer of modern children’s literature’, evokes vivid images of life in the misty Himalayas with adventures in train tunnels or tales of crickets that talk to crocodiles. Paro Anand’s realistic tales entertain rather than moralise. Subhadra Sen Gupta weaves a lot of yarns around music and food. Her Mystery of the House of Pigeons has also been televised.

Children’s fare has also changed tack to meet the television and IT explosion. Slickly produced to the accompaniment of inviting sound tracks are the talking books: Karadi Tales and Under the Banyan series.

Certain English rhymes too have been given an indigenous twist and social relevance. In Maharashtra, Mary had a little lamb has been adapted to Meera had a little cat. In the drought-affected regions, Rain rain go away/ Come again another day has been recast as Rain rain do not fail/ Paper boats we will sail.

Children’s writing in English is often accused of lacking the vibrancy or richness of native metaphors and imagery that vernacular literature is imbued with. A growing tribe of dedicated translators has been trying to bridge this gap. Ironically, our multi-lingual milieu restricts our children’s writers from acquiring a universal appeal, like that of Enid Blyton or Agatha Christie in the past and Rowling now.

Says Brian Mendonca, a Project Editor with Oxford University Press, Delhi, "Indian children, given their diversity of religious, cultural and social experience, do not have a bank of common lived experience to fascinate themselves with." This is where Potter probably steps in, giving readers from Chandigarh to Chennai a common world of fantasy they can lap up.

Rao sums up this reality thus, "In India, the plethora of languages can work as a positive and a negative. I was in Sweden last year, working on a book by Astrid Lindgren, a famous children’s writer. I was asked who was the equivalent of Lindgren in India. I had no answer because it is impossible to pick one name when we have so many people writing in so many languages."

Children’s writers, especially in English, will have to continually work with this challenge of being ‘rooted and yet free’, of squeezing the best out of our plurality to arrive at a commonality of characters and contexts that can have mass appeal. If little boys and girls from Kanpur to Kottayam or Kota to Kolkata could have a national literary icon, they might not be so smitten by a Spiderman or Harry Potter.

But as the Harry Potter success story is being partly attributed to the publicity blitzkrieg, something needs to be said about the packaging and marketing of children’s books. From a steam locomotive dressed as the Howgarts Express to tableaux designed as the Howgarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, much gimmickry went into making Rowling’s latest title an instant sellout.

Such spectacular book launches may be unthinkable for Indian children’s authors, who’re only too grateful if their scripts are not rubbished by publishers in the first instance. Nor do most children’s publishers in India have lavish budgets to work on.

Seeing that our celebrities wield a lot of influence as brand ambassadors, it may not be a bad idea to have Sachin or Saurav as book ambassadors too.

Delhi-based Bulbul Sharma, a children’s writer whose Tales of Fabled Beasts, Gods and Demons was launched a few months ago, maintains: "More than the authors it is the Indian publishers who should be more clued in on marketing children’s books in a better way. After all, much of the current Harry Potter craze is due to the well-publicised launch Rowling’s latest book received"

Mendonca points out that children’s writers have not attained demi-god status in India as it is the Arundhati Roys and the Pico Iyers who hog all the limelight. A lot also depends on how well children’s works are translated into English, he adds.

Stressing the publicity aspect, Rao says, "Publishers are exploring new and different methods of marketing their books, including taking them to international book fairs where they have been well-received. But we need to get over our hang-up about children’s books having to be cheap. Cheap does not mean good..."

Sounding an optimistic note she adds: "Our publishing history is young, it’s only in the last five or six years really that children’s literature has been taken seriously in the market. Give it time, and we too will have some great literary characters."

If packaging and publicity is the name of the game, India’s vast treasure trove of children’s literature may just need a little push to arrive on the global circuit. The way Bollywood has arrived in Hollywood, the tales of some Indian Hari Puttar may some day overshadow Harry Potter!